JEDDAH: The people of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip are receiving relief through various channels and the reconstruction of the area will soon begin, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said here yesterday.
Speaking to Arab News, Moussa denied there were problems in sending aid to Gaza because the territory is not controlled by President Mahmoud Abbas.
“We are sending aid through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the Arab Fund and some other channels,” said Moussa, who was in Jeddah to sign an agreement with Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Arab-Islamic relations.
“That is not a problem. We are planning to build schools and other institutions as early as possible. Right now our priority is to provide immediate but effective relief assistance,” he added.
Interrupting Moussa, Ihsanoglu said, “We are sending dozens of trucks full of relief and rehabilitation materials everyday to war-torn Gaza through the Rafah crossing.”
Moussa said efforts are being made to unite the Palestinian factions, and reconstruction would begin as soon as they are united. “We can no longer keep silent on the situation in Gaza. People there are living in the streets after Israel destroyed their homes, schools and properties,” he said.
He admitted that the Arab nations are in a disarray and bitterly divided over the Gaza issue. “Of course, the Arab situation is still troubled and tense, things are still not good in my opinion ... and we need to exert efforts to close ranks as much as possible,” he said.
Moussa, embittered by divisions that appeared in the recently concluded Arab summit conference in Kuwait, said the United Nations should not be dispelled from attempts to resolve the Middle East crisis, no matter how impotent and ineffective it might be. “This is a path we should never drop out of, particularly since Israel is trying to keep the UN Security Council away from any peace efforts,” he said.
Moussa called on the world to find a solution to the Palestinian problem this year, especially after President Barack Obama taking office. “The Arabs have tried more than once to find a solution to the Palestinian cause with the previous US administration but all they got were empty smiles and futile meetings,” he said.
He congratulated Obama and urged the new president to place the Middle East as a key priority on his agenda.
Moussa criticized the inefficiency of the Middle East Peace Quartet entrusted with finding a solution to the Palestinian crisis and said its slackness and inability to move has resulted in the barbaric Israeli assault on Gaza.
Asked about the statements made by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah during the Arab summit in Kuwait that the Arab peace initiative would not remain on the table forever, Moussa said the essence of any agreement is the commitment of the two parties to its implementation which is lacking on the part of Israel.
Asked if the Arab League and the OIC would work together for an Arab-Iranian dialogue to clear the atmosphere between the two sides, Moussa said, “This is the prevailing trend so that conflicts will not go out of the regional context to an international one ... These relations require care, attention and candid discussions. We are living together in one region so we have to have better relations.”
Ihsanoglu also congratulated Obama and urged him to help foster a constructive dialogue between Islam and the West. “We warmly welcome your expressed desire to give a major address in a Muslim nation within 100 days of assuming the presidency and hope it will mark the beginning of a more fruitful and better-informed dialogue between the West and the Muslim world,” he said.
The Arab League-OIC agreement that was signed yesterday augmented Arab-Islamic relations on multilateral issues, and boost cooperation between the two organizations in political, economic, media, social and scientific fields. Ihsanoglu said the agreement between the two organizations was a renewal to an old one signed in 1989, which failed to achieve its objectives.
The accord brings closer two of the most influential organizations in the Islamic world. The two sides agreed to develop Arab-Islamic relations “to preserve and develop mutual interests and to resist colonialism, Zionism and racism, exploitation and terrorism in all its forms,” said a joint statement after the signing.
They also agreed to regularly exchange views on political issues of interest to Arab and Islamic countries, to allow each other’s observers at their meetings, and to meet to coordinate positions and policies ahead of international forums such as the UN General Assembly.
